Rebels Win In Blowout Over the Tigers

Auburn's losing streak continued with an 88-55 SEC basketball loss at Ole Miss.

Oxford, Miss.--Auburn's losing streak continued on Saturday as the Tigers were blown out 88-55 by Ole Miss for a fifth straight setback.

Guard Marshall Henderson, who came off the bench for the first time this season for the Rebels, tied the Ole Miss school record with eight made three-point shots. He scored 19 points in the first half and finished with 28 points for the Rebels, who improved to 20-7 overall and 9-5 in the conference.

Auburn's record dropped to 9-18 overall and 3-11 in the SEC.

The Rebels improved to 14-1 in games at Tad Smith Coliseum this season and are 6-1 in SEC home games. Ole Miss has its best record at this stage of the season since 2001.

"We were really locked in," Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said. "Auburn has obviously had their struggles, but no one has done that to them. They've been competitive in all of their games.

"When you look at the league, there is very little separation when you get past Florida," he said. "Anybody can beat anybody on any night. For us, it was just about getting right.

"Obviously, we're discouraged by the fact that we dropped a couple of road games," he said. "I just wanted us to play well, and I thought the score would take care of itself. We were really locked in defensively. It was the best we had rebounded the ball in quite some time."

Coach Tony Barbee's Tigers were led by a season-high from freshman guard Shaquille Johnson, who scored 18 points. Johnson hit 7-11 field goals and played 33 minutes. He added four rebounds and two assists while playing without a turnover.

With the help of a pair of treys by Henderson the Rebels jumped to a 15-6 lead. Auburn cut the gap to 16-12 at the 10:22 mark on a steal and layup by Allen Payne, but the Rebels went on a 12-0 run and Auburn never got back into the contest. By halftime the Tigers trailed 44-27.

"It was horrendous," Sullivan said of his team's performance. "It was terrible."

Ole Miss built the lead to 30 with 9:40 to play at 68-38.

The Rebels outshot Auburn 54 percent to 39.3 percent from the floor and nailed 13-25 three-pointers. Auburn made just 3-18 treys.

Freshman guard Brian Greene scored eight points for the Tigers and Rob Chubb came off the bench to score seven points.

Starting Lineup: Asahun-Dixon Tatum made his first Auburn start. He was joined in the lineup by Payne, Shaquille Johnson, Josh Wallace and Frankie Sullivan. Dixon-Tatum was 0-3 from the field. He played nine minutes and did not score. He finished with one rebound.

Worth Noting: Auburn was dominated on the boards with the Rebels holding a 38-22 edge. The Tigers turned the ball over 11 times, Ole Miss had 14.

Worth Noting, Part 2: Tony Barbee did not make an appearance at the postgame press conference. He left the arena, got on a university plane and went recruiting.

Up Next: The Tigers will play Tuesday at 6 p.m. CST vs. Alabama, an opponent the Tigers defeated 49-37 on Feb. 6th.